


Assembly of Short Stories

by OtterMcKilbourne (p_3a)



Category: World of Warcraft
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-01
Updated: 2013-11-25
Packaged: 2018-01-12 03:03:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 3,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1181145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/p_3a/pseuds/OtterMcKilbourne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Any standalone pieces of a word count small enough that I didn't think they were worth their own archive entry. Warnings and content markers in the notes at the head of each chapter.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Dyslexic Varian for tumblr user varianna-wrynn

Anduin jumped as Varian slammed his hands on the desk in frustration.

"I just don’t  _get it_!”  
"It’s alright, Father," he said calmly, though he wasn’t going to pretend the man’s sudden outburst hadn’t startled him. "It’s alright. You don’t have to get it all on the first day."  
"It’s no wonder they look to  _you_  as their leader,” he despaired, “I can’t even write my  _name_.”

Anduin reached out and gently rubbed his father’s arm. The contact seemed to soothe the larger man; Varian had always been very tactile in a way Anduin hadn’t, not quite. “Our surname’s easier. Let’s start with that.”

-

It was, by no standards, calligraphy. It was possibly the messiest handwriting Anduin had ever seen outside of the declarations of undying affection and requests of whether he’d ever seen a man’s head explode that he regularly received from the under-5’s at the orphanage. But it filled Anduin Wrynn with more pride than any of those things, more triumph than he’d ever gotten from a neatly-penned missive informing him of an Alliance victory, and  _far_ more love than he’d felt when he’d received a rather lurid confession from a certain noble’s daughter.

It was a single, shaky word: "Wrynn."

"Well done, Father," he smiled, to a strangely proud-seeming Varian. "Very well done indeed."


	2. Coffee shop AU Varian/Tiffin, for tumblr user must-love-dads

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Varian finally works up the courage to ask out a customer who's caught his eye.

She smiled, and it was the nicest sight Varian had seen all day. But: “No, I don’t think so,” she said; they weren’t being overheard, and he knew it wasn’t to make an example of him, but he still felt his cheeks burning and indignation flaring in his chest. Especially when he turned back to the counter and saw his coworkers laughing in a far less kind way than she had.


	3. Anduin/Liam AU, for tumblr user must-love-dads

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Liam Greymane has followed his boyfriend to Pandaria.

If there was one thing to be said for the Worgen condition, it was that it made Liam Greymane an excellent tracker. Anduin’s scent had been lost on the wind to him a few times in the last few days, but he knew now he was closing in; and the alarmed peal of yelps which cut through the fog of the swamp he was traipsing through only confirmed his suspicions that Anduin was nearby. Relief and fear tore through his human disguise as he saw a blond head cornered against a tree by one of the dreadful mist monsters, and he charged on all fours for the beast, teeth bared.


	4. Immortality, for tumblr user young-alliance-prince

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> AU where Wrathion finds a way to make Anduin functionally immortal too. Anduin doesn't take kindly to this, but after three thousand years of separation, Wrathion can't take it any longer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part 1 - http://young-alliance-prince.tumblr.com/post/66903905397/wranduin-au-where-wrathion-finds-a-way-to-make-anduin

This was worse.

The years went by and somehow, this was worse. Somehow, the knowledge that Anduin was  _there_ , he just  _didn’t want him_  - that everything they’d built together was worth nothing for Wrathion wanting to keep it - that was worse than the thought that he could never see Anduin again. At least this fate was of his choosing, he reassured himself, night after night after week after month. At least this was what he’d decided.

That changed. It changed when Left went, first. Right was next. He took new guards, but it was never the same. The centuries passed and there was nothing, nobody that he missed more than that golden head, and it was with a burning embarrassment on his cheeks and tears in his eyes that he finally brought himself to visit the tower that the Grand Father of Stormwind had sequestered himself to for so long. Decades, he’d heard. He was worried that he might not even recognise his old friend when the door was opened, but he did. Sharply, painfully so.

"Anduin Wrynn," and he hated, but accepted, the way his voice shook. "I’m…  _sorry_.”


	5. Confession

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anduin uses the confession spell on his father, and doesn't understand what he hears.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Varian/Garrosh.

Pre-bell

It was meant to be a little bit of fun. Varian had even consented, with a grin and a quip; “What’s the worst that could happen?”

Anduin had still been nervous, of course. It wasn’t… normal, was it? To cast mind magics on your  _father_  of all people? But he  _had_  needed somebody to practice on… carefully, he extended the Light towards his father’s mind and let its searing brightness bring forth a hidden truth.

“ _I know he’s a jerk, but there’s something about Garrosh…_ ”

Varian clapped his hands over his mouth almost immediately, and Anduin couldn’t do anything other than  _laugh_.

"Father—  _Garrosh_? Really? Of  _all_  the people—”  
"Anduin," Varian growled, though mostly he looked sheepish.  
"Maybe there’s hope for peace between the Alliance and the Horde after all," Anduin said, the biggest,cheekiest grin on his face.  
Varian couldn’t think of anything else to say. “You little  _shit_ ,” he replied, matching Anduin’s grin.

Post-bell

Anduin hadn’t even intended to cast the spell. The Light came to him so easily these days that the argument with his father, the fury that could only have come from a Wrynn at his father  _keeping things_  from him when they’d promised to be as honest with each other as possible, had caused the Light to spring to his hands and leap over to Varian, exposing him in a spotlight of honesty for only a moment:

“ _I know he’s a jerk, but there’s something about Garrosh…_ ”

And Anduin was  _mortified_. Varian didn’t look much better - both of them knew the implications. That Varian less than  _hated_  the man who had actively almost  _killed_  Anduin. Anduin’s breath quickened in his throat as unbidden tears spilled over onto his cheeks. He’d known his father wasn’t being honest, but… this… had he lied all along about how much he’d cared for him?

"I’m going back to the Tavern in the Mists," he choked out as he turned and stalked off to the door. " _Don’t_  follow me.”


	6. Father Troubles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> AU where Deathwing comes across Wrathion's egg.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warnings: suicide, abuse

The burning fury and pain melted away for a half-second as he saw the monstrous amalgamation in front of him.

He’d had it in his mind to put the poor creature out of its misery. He wanted to burn the  _world_ , to put  _it_  into the comfort of oblivion the way he wished he was - but something about this… child.

It was a  _child_. One of  _his children_. The only things on this world that he had once given a single lonely care about, and he was about to destroy it.

The shell of the egg was pleasantly cool against his seared hands. His children. It made sense to send it to be cared for by another of his progeny, didn’t it?

His natural instincts thrumming in his mind for the first time in decades, and the last time in his life, he flew off with the tiny thing clutched in his ginormous claws. He’d make sure it got to Sabellian. He would.

-

"Father?"

Neltharion’s vision cleared for a moment, and he looked down at his son.

The boy was cowering, one hand raised defensively over his head. His eyes were wide, his pupils slitted, and his mouth slack in abject terror. Blood trickled from the corner of the boy’s mouth, the bruise on his cheek from where Deathwing’s fist had struck him. He stuttered out an explanation - “I was, ahh, I was just wondering if I— ah, if it’s not too much  _trouble_ , we don’t have much  _food_  nearby…”

It was pathetic.  _He_  was pathetic. The moment of lucidity passed, and Neltharion was gone, Deathwing speaking once again.

"I told you to get  _out_. I’m  _busy_.”


	7. Captured Wrynns

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wrathion discovers Varian stripped naked and chained to a bed post. His clothes and most of the room's contents stolen by a very bold and persuasive burglar.

Varian’s cheeks were a particularly amusing shade of maroon as Wrathion tried to catch his breath.

"You’re  _telling_  me that your  _guards_ ,” he said, pausing to try not to burst into laughter again, “not only totally  _ignored_  the scuffle going on in here, but also managed to not  _notice_  as you were  _overpowered_  by this burglar and had your  _armour_  stolen?”

"Shut the  _fuck_  up,” Varian spat. He wasn’t usually one to swear, but… well. “For all I know it was  _your_  people who did this. They said they had  _Anduin_. If you give a  _single_  damn about my son, you’ll untie me  _now_  and help me  _find_ him.”

That… that  _did_  change things, and Wrathion hoped the way the amusement dropped immediately out of his face was evidence enough to Varian that he was taking the situation seriously. “Anduin?” he repeated. “They have Anduin?”

"Yes."

Wrathion straightened his back and called Left and Right to his side with a wave of his hand. “Find this man some armour and a weapon,” he commanded. “We have a Prince to retrieve.”


	8. Fahrad Lives AU

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fahrad lives (he took on the Titan Excising thing that Wrathion did). Varian is concerned about his son's relationship and arranges a chaperoned date where he tries to give Wrathion the Dad's-disapproving-look treatment, only to find that Fahrad is doing the same thing to Anduin.

Fahrad crossed his single arm across his chest and scowled. “I don’t like either of them,” he muttered to Wrathion.

Wrathion shot a glare down to where his guardian was sat in his wheelchair. He was grateful - very grateful, almost  _thankful_  - for the man’s continued existence, but he had to admit that his sometimes _judgemental_  nature could be obstructive.

"I don’t  _care_ ,” he said. “Now, if you don’t mind, I’m  _trying_  to make a good  _impression_ , here. Keep  _quiet_  and try not to say anything too obviously  _brutal_  while we’re here.”

-

Varian, meanwhile, was  _not_  pleased.

He’d only expected to be dealing with  _one_  Black dragon. Instead, Anduin had brought him here and there were  _two_. He glanced down at his son, who was leaning heavily on his cane with a bemused sort of grin on his face.

"I didn’t expect Wrathion to bring a chaperone too," Anduin admitted. "I didn’t know he  _had_  one.”

"I bet that’s not the  _only_  secret he’s keeping from you,” Varian growled.

"He didn’t keep it a secret," Anduin retorted, rolling his eyes. "I never asked."

Varian grunted, still not pleased, but conceding for his son’s sake. “We’ll see.”


	9. Family, for tumblr user onyxianwhelp

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Valtarion finally proves to Wrathion that he's not corrupted, and takes him to Outland to meet the rest of their family.

It was a strange sensation, suddenly having… family.

And not just  _blood_  family, either. He’d had that before, and he hadn’t liked it. But actually being…  _welcomed_  by this cousin that had every right to hate him for how he’d treated him before, but instead was  _trusting_  him. Welcoming him into his home.

Part of him wanted to take advantage of the display of weakness and slaughter them all. But they— they were actually  _kind_  to him. Without any of them even particularly thinking about it, he was adopted into their care, and suddenly he didn’t have to grow up quite so quickly. He had time, and space, to  _learn_  things.

He still didn’t get along with Sabellian. Their personalities clashed too much, Wrathion’s smug bragging and Sabellian’s sardonic dismissiveness meshing badly. But all the same…

…it was…  _nice_. And when it was time to leave and return to his post back on Azeroth in a way he knew his family couldn’t, he felt heartened rather than disappointed.


	10. Corrupt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anduin Wrynn becomes corrupted by the Old Gods and Wrathion struggles to decide what to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wrathion/Anduin; Varian&Wrathion. Content warning for depression and suicide.

Wrathion had found it increasingly difficult to get out of bed, lately.

Somehow, it all seemed that much harder, knowing that the pillar of faith and light he’d come to know as Anduin Llane Wrynn was far from as incorruptible as he’d dared even for a moment to truly believe.

He was mortal. Weak. Just like the rest of them.

Just like Wrathion.

Today was the worst so far. He knew it was, as they say, decision day. He stared listlessly at the ceiling, hoping that every minute was a minute longer in which for there to be chances that someone might barge into his room and tell him that Anduin had made an unprecedented recovery from the things that ailed him. That he’d stopped calling tentacles and dark spells and those horrid, awful words in languages that made Wrathion squirm in disgust just to hear them, let alone coming from those beautiful lips. A moment longer he could pretend that he was back at the tavern, and could stroll out onto the landing and play Jihui with him once again.

A knock on the door dispelled his desperate delusions. He forced himself, feeling as though there were rocks in his limbs, to sit up. “Come in.”

It was Right, worry etched into every feature of her usually stoic face. “You look awful, your Majesty,” she said.  
"I know."  
"Let me brush your hair."  
"Fine."

Wrathion let her prepare him for the day with a passiveness which, for a nagging moment, even concerned him. He felt dazed, unreal, and most of all,  _heavy_. Everything was weighing him down so  _much_. He just wanted it to  _stop_ , to go back to normal. He wanted _Anduin_  to tell him it would all be alright.

He finally walked out onto the landing a half-hour later, only to be met by Varian rushing up the stairs, a grief-stricken panic on his face that made Wrathion’s stomach turn over.

"He’s gone," Varian said, breathless. "Escaped. Just now."

Wrathion couldn’t even bring himself to pretend to be shocked. At least this meant his decision had been made for him.


	11. Actual Two Year Old

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Anduin was told he'd be meeting the last Black Dragon, he didn't know he'd be meeting a toddler.

At first, Anduin had even been a little  _irritated_. He’d expected an intelligent conversation and instead been left playing with building blocks, teaching a  _black dragon_  to  _spell_. It felt like the kind of fate his abuser would have planned out for him - raising her whelps while she went about destroying the world.

But there was one thing that had Anduin sold the instance he witnessed it. Wrathion, his large red eyes wide in his brown babyish face, had looked up at him and said his  _name_.

"That’s…  _adorable_.”


	12. Reveal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Milanda and Anduin's wedding night. She has kept a secret from him, which she is about to reveal: Her alter-ego.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More about Milanda, who is not my character, here: http://littlest-death-knight.tumblr.com
> 
> SFW (unless your workplace is anti-LGBT because both the G and the T are featured here) but has mentions of sex and pregnancy.

Anduin Wrynn was feeling something he hadn’t felt in a very long time.

He wanted to cry.

He’d known this moment was coming, realistically. It was impossible to avoid. He’d have to not only  _be with_  a woman, but to  _lay with_  a woman - to completion, to produce an heir - and he… he couldn’t do it. He just wasn’t… it just felt  _wrong_ , to him, on a level he couldn’t quite explain even after years of trying to comprehend it enough to explain to his father, his aunt,  _anyone_ who might have been able to come up with a solution or an alternative. He didn’t want this. He didn’t want  _any_  of this. A hundred years of dreadful paperwork and droll meetings with horrible nobles were  _all_  preferable royal duties to  _this_. Whether she was his friend or not.

He stalled by the door to his room, not joining her as she headed over to the bed. He felt stupid and small, in so much royal regalia he could hardly move yet somehow still having to hold his own hand on top of his cane to stop himself from shaking.

His new wife (even the  _word_  felt thick and horrid on his tongue) noticed something was wrong. He vaguely heard her call his name, turning to face her after a few moments - and startling at what he saw.

"M— Milanda?"

The person sat, casually, on the edge of the bed was now not the woman whose hand he’d held and lips he’d politely kissed hours ago - but a masculine-figured person of similar build and face, his hair just as long and his expression just the same mix of sympathetic and challenging.

"Siegfried, actually," he said. "I’d been meaning to tell you."  
"You—" Anduin collected himself, "you’re transgender?"  
Siegfried nodded. “Sort of. Genderfluid, really. I usually keep my two identities pretty separate; most people think we’re brother and sister, rather than  _the same person_ , but… I figured I could make an exception for you.”  
"For me?" Anduin leaned on his cane, feeling light-headed. "Mil— You don’t have to if it’s not comfortable…"  
Siegfried shrugged. “It’s perfectly comfortable for me. Especially if it means you won’t be crying the whole way through.”  
Anduin laughed nervously. “I wouldn’t. Not in front of you, anyway.”  
” _Sure_  you wouldn’t.” He smirked, patting the bed beside him. “Come on. Let’s talk for a bit.”


	13. Threat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wrathion reacts to a pet cat; Anduin thinks it's funny.

Anduin Wrynn couldn’t breathe for laughing.

The cat, for its part, was uninterested at worst and curious at best; it had raised its face, ears and whiskers forwards, to sniff in Wrathion’s direction before deciding he wasn’t a threat and beginning to groom its paw.

Wrathion had arched his back, flared his wings, and  _hissed_. He was turned side-on, his pupils tiny slits and his lips pulled back to expose his fangs (which were, to his credit, rather impressive). His face crests flipped out and the spines running down his back raised.

And he didn’t  _stop_. The cat regarded him, flicked its ear, and stalked off without interacting with him; and he didn’t calm until long after Anduin’s face had turned red with how he had to gasp for breath between laughs.

"What," he said, his tail flicking. "It was looking at me funny."


	14. Frightening

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Whelp form Wrathion catches sight of his reflection in a mirror and reacts instinctively while Anduin watches.

Wrathion knew in his head that it was  _him_  in the mirror, but there was still something in the back of his mind which made him shudder. Unless he concentrated, he processed the sight of another whelp - an unknown whelp, a whelp  _without a scent_  - as an uncanny threat, and before he could help himself he felt his spines standing up and his wings flaring.

"Wrathion?" Anduin looked over, bemused. "It’s just a mirror."

"I  _know_ ,” Wrathion said through gritted teeth. His tail curled around to make his silhouette larger, his lips twitching.

"…is this going to be a problem?"

"I’m  _fine_.”

Anduin shook his head and grinned, going back to his writing and only occasionally glancing over at the various posturing that Wrathion was performing in front of his own phantom double.


	15. Shifting, for tumblr user taaruk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wrathion explains to Anduin things about being a dragon like transforming and controlling the earth element, because Anduin is always curious and Wrathion is always bragging (as he very well should. He is a very special dragon)

"Can you do it slower? So I can watch?"

"It doesn’t really work like that, Prince Wrynn."

"No?"

"No." Wrathion straightened his collar and sighed, as if explaining something very simple to someone even simpler. "Every dragon is born with the capability to shift discretely between  _two_  forms. One drakonid, and one humanoid. With  _practice_ , we can  _alter_  our humanoid form to appear  _different_ , at which time we gain the ability to shift into any humanoid form we have in the past…”

He went on for quite some time, elaborating on flows of magic and Titan-granted powers and how they differed, and Anduin had to admit he didn’t understand most of it. He suspected Wrathion was deliberately inflating his vocabulary to make it seem more difficult to understand than it was, too. He always was a bit of a show-off.

He did his best to listen anyway, and, of course, once Wrathion had evidently finished his ramble he smiled pleasantly and asked another question.

"What about controlling the Earth, then? Is that the same?"

“ _No_.” Wrathion narrowed his eyes at him, then cracked a small smirk and began to talk again. And the longer he did, the less Anduin cared that he couldn’t understand him and the more he was simply glad to be able to hear his voice.


	16. Illness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anduin is sick and Wrathion is worried about him.

"Wrathion, it’s nothing."

"I never said it  _was_  anything! Stop assuming I  _care_.”

Wrathion pouted, standing in the doorway of Anduin’s room. He was hazy in Anduin’s feverish vision, his head raised only as much as it needed to be to look at him.

"Bye then," Anduin said, flopping back down onto the bed.

But Wrathion didn’t leave. He approached the man’s resting place quietly and slipped his hand over Anduin’s forehead. For once, Anduin’s forehead felt warm to his touch.

"Ridiculous mortals. Always so many ailments."  
"Mm." Anduin wrinkled his nose, his eyes closed. "Shut up, Wrathion."  
"You’re snappy when you’re ill."  
"You’re  _shut up_.”  
"…and not very good at comebacks."

With a sigh, Wrathion shifted his clothes to a more comfortable outfit, then slipped under the covers with Anduin. The human immediately wrapped his arms around Wrathion, despite his earlier prickliness, and from how strongly he as hugging him, he wasn’t going to let go any time soon.

It was a good thing Wrathion hadn’t made plans for the rest of the afternoon anyway, other than pacing with concern over Anduin’s condition.


	17. Smut

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anduin and Wrathion try to write smut.

"Anduin Wrynn, that’s  _ridiculous_.”

"N— No it’s not," the other Prince retorted, defensive.

"Yes it  _is_! I would  _never_  do such a thing—” Wrathion stopped talking as he registered the blush and the way Anduin was avoiding eye contact. “Un… less… you  _wanted_  me to,” he amended.

Anduin’s face looked like it was about to explode from blushing so hard; that sight, in and of itself, made this absurd endeavour worthwhile.


End file.
